HOW TO BECOME A GEAR
TESTER IN THREE EASY STEPS
STEP 2, LESSON 1
WRITING A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

This is really a 'one time only' step, since you will use
the biography you create here for all your reports and applications with
only minor updates from time to time. It is an important step,
however, because your biography is required in all reports and in all
applications. People will be interested in your biographical
information for a number of reasons. People looking for clothing,
for example, will often look for reviewers and testers of clothing that are their size
and weight. That way, they have a reasonable expectation that the clothing
will fit them the same way. Your biography is important during the
tester selection process. The moderators will select applicants
based on various criteria found in the tester biographies. For
example, if cold weather gear is being tested, the moderators may look for
people in cold climates, or those who predominantly hike in cold climates. The moderators also like to select a
cross section of testers, and the biographies help them do this.

You should, of course, use good judgment about the
information you include. When testing clothing, for instance, it may
be necessary to add additional measurement information such as torso,
inseam, waist, and other measurements. You should include
information in both Imperial (English) and Metric units. It is
better to include too much information than not enough.

Ok, let's begin. You should open any text editor or
word processor familiar to you, and begin filling in your biography.
Here's a starting point for basic information:

This should be self explanatory. The 'Backpacking
Background' should be a paragraph that lets us know a little about
how and where you hike. While we're going to show you a few
examples, these shouldn't be considered fill-in-the-blank templates.
You should let your own style and creativity come through while keeping it brief. Let's
create the example:

Backpacking Background: I started backpacking five years
ago, mostly taking weekend trips and occasionally going out for a
whole week. I like my pack to be as light as possible, but I
don't really consider myself a lightweight backpacker. I
normally hike in hard, mountainous terrain, and I frequently
encounter snow and freezing temperatures.

That's it! That's all you need. Here, we see
that John lives in northern Alaska, and he briefly details his experience,
time spent backpacking, his style, and the terrain and weather conditions
he normally encounters. Notice that John includes both English units
(inches and feet) as well as Metric units (Kilograms) for his measurements.

A conversion utility is available from this site.
Just click on the 'Converter' link in the navigation menu.

Here are a few more examples, allowing for
style, that are all acceptable:

What if John had little or no experience? Only his
Backpacking Background would change:

Backpacking Background: I started backpacking
two weeks ago when some friends invited me along on a trip.
They lent me some gear, and we had a great time - and now I'm
hooked! I would like to start doing day hikes on the weekend,
and I will start buying my own gear as I can afford it. I will
be hiking in arctic terrain, often using a snowmobile or dog sled
and team to get me to places where I can hike.

In this case, John will be writing owner reviews of gear
that he has bought or borrowed for his trip. Since he doesn't have
much experience with it, hopefully he will thoroughly test his gear before
taking it on long trips in such harsh terrain where his life may depend on
his gear.

Backpacking Background: I have been backpacking for ten
years now. I have taken countless weekend trips, and I have
started going out for six months a year to search out remote and lonely
places. I like to be comfortable in camp, so I often carry a
very heavy pack. I have thru-hiked the AT, PCT, CDT, Long
Trail, and climbed several mountains in the U.S., Nepal, Tibet, and
Lower Mongolia. I have encountered all types of terrain, and
have logged 15,000 miles both on and off the trail. I moved to
Florida last year, and I have been hiking in the Everglades.
On my weekend trips I often encounter low, flat terrain interspersed
with wetlands. The weather is often rainy, but much warmer
than what I am used to experiencing. In April of next year, I
will be leaving to hike in the Sahara desert, and I hope to cross
solo from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

From this we see that John has become a 'Superhiker' in
the last ten years. This boy has got the backpacking disease - and
bad! He's probably independently wealthy in order to be able to be
gone so many months out of the year...

There is a problem with this background. It has become more of
a "gee look at me" instead of letting people know the person's
background. We like to keep the Backpacking Background paragraph
to a hundred words. Really. A hundred words.

When making an application to test gear, you may also add other information
that will be relevant to that test. We'll cover that when the time
comes. By now you should have a good idea of what your bio should
look like. If you need other examples of acceptable biographies,
just read any report on BackpackGearTest.org. In fact, it's a good
idea to read several reports so that you will get an idea about what
reports should look like.

Go ahead and write your biography now, and be sure to
save it in a safe place. You will be using it a lot and updating it
from time to time.

Product tested and reviewed in each Formal Test Report has been provided free of charge by the manufacturer to BackpackGearTest.org. Upon completion of the Test Series the writer is permitted to keep the product. Owner Reviews are based on product owned by the reviewer personally unless otherwise noted.